9.3.14

If I'm honest, I'd have to say I'm an emotionally charged person. I can tear up in no time at all & I do in fact, tear up often. Often I apologize to those around me for these emotional outbursts. However, there is one thing that I will never apologize for getting emotional about...family.

I love my family! My immediate family is my world! (Being a stay-at-home mom & wife, I guess it would be impossible for it not to be.) My husband & I have spent the past 6 years of marriage building a life together & establishing our own family. Just over six months ago our family grew as we welcomed our beautiful little girl into our world. My two loves are of utmost importance. When one of them smiles, my life lights up & I can't help but smile too. When laughter erupts from one, it often flows from my lips too. In the same way, when there is sadness, hurt, frustration or tears, I share in that pain.

I was raised in a home where family was always a top priority. Thankfully I married into a family that also values family. As such, it's not unheard of us to make day trips specifically for birthday dinners, bridal showers & (soon!) baby showers, to organize our May long weekend around a birthday party, to host Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter, to plan summer holidays every third year around a family reunion & to make countless trips (even at really early & really late hours!) to the airport.

I have a large & fairly close extended family. We tend to rally together pretty well. We love to celebrate & cheer each other on & when there's crisis we send encouraging messages & prayers. Most recently there's been a death. One of our "best," who lived life to the fullest, loved large, laughed & was always up for fun. He was know to do a monkey dance in his boxers on a trailer. He climbed a ladder with Santa to do a bit of Christmas "decorating", disassembled & reassembled a green velvet chair all for the sake of a good laugh. It's hard, heart breaking, so sad & maddening as his death was caused by cancer. It happened too soon & no matter what any of us knew about the diagnosis, it's not easy to accept. Our family has a collective hatred towards cancer, which has been seen as two of my cousins have done phenomenal fundraisers to fight cancer, that draw numerous family members to join the fight. In light if recent events there will no doubt be many who will make a decent trek to join the twins fight against cancer this summer.

Family is so important. So don't expect an apology from me when it comes to emotional outbursts. Sorry, but I'm not sorry.